gcsewikiaorg-20200214-history
Political Problems Facing Germany up to 1923
Revolution in Germany 1918 *29 October: Naval mutiny at Kiel, when crews of German ships refused to put to sea as they knew they wouldn't win and would be beaten by the Royal Navy *Food Shortages and hardship was common all over Germany, this was caused by the Allied naval blockade *In Early November: Councils of workers were set up in towns all over Germany. *This led many Germans to believe that there would be a communist revolution *7 November: In Munich, the state of Bavaria was declared an independent republic. *Also there was a strike which happened in attempts to win their political views The abdication of the Kaisers *7 November: German negotiators traveled to meet the Alies to discuss an *The treaty was too much for Germany so they decided to go against it. *The other countries did not like this so then Hitler started an attack, that's how the second world war started Ebert's government *The new government was set up by Fredrich Elbert *He was a moderate Social Democrat, who didn't want a communist revolution *He made an agreement with the army for troops to support his government, in return for defeating communism(This was called the Elbert-Gronener Pact) *Elbert was also helped by The Freikorps The Freikorps *They were groups of demobilized soldiers *They liked violence, weapons, uniforms and Discipline *They were strongly nationalist and Right-wing *They hated Communism, Jews, Democratic politicians, The Alies (especially the French) *They also hated the "November Criminals". These were the German politicians who signed the Armistice *They also liked male comradeship and the company of men *Elbert's Government had to use them to help crush the communist revolutionaries *Around 10,000 of them were hired by the governmentssjsjjsjsjns Spartacist Uprising of 1919 *The Spartacists were the main group of left-wing revolutionaries *They wanted a social revolution like in Russia *The leaders of the Spartacists were Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht *The Spartacists disagreed however, while Rosa wanted to wait, most other members believed they should strike now *Jan 1919: Spartacists staged an attempted revolution, and seized the headquarters of the government newspaper and telegraph bureau *However, it was not well prepared and the leaders only supported it when it was already happening *It was easily crushed by the Freikorps, who the took over the Spartacist headquarters, and killed 100 of them, including the leader The political effects of the Treaty of Versailles The Kapp Putsch *many germans hated the treaty of versailles, which led to an unstable government. *the army was the most angry group in Germany as they were restricted and their leaders had agreed to this *the soliders which had been taken out of the army because of reductions, formed a separate force called the Freikorps. *by the early 1920s, allies were getting worried about the sizes of the unofficial forces and they put pressure of Germany to disband them and to obey the restriction of 100,000 men required by the treaty. *march 1920, when the government tried to do this, Freikorps units led by Wolfgang Kapp marched into Berlin and declared a new national government. the army did not stop them. *ebert had to escape to Dresden as he was not supported by the government army anymore. *there, politicians appealed to the workers to general strike. this was very effective as publiuc services had stopped after a few days and Kapp had to leave. however, as ebert had no support of the army, he was unable to punish the Kapp offenders. Political Murders Category: History